Unbeknownst to Me
by Minatu-chan
Summary: How one person can be so oblivious and how words can change everything. Slight AU-Midotaka


**As I attempt to avoid running into a problem known to many as "writer's block", I create this.  
**

_**Disclaimer-**_** I do not own Kuroko no Basuke. Jeez.  
**

**onwards**

Unbeknownst to Me

Have you ever stopped to question your environment? Why _indeed_ is the sky blue? Why does time always keep ticking forward? Or maybe that is just the human's perspective. We see things a certain way, and therefore that is what we decide to be true. There is, however, always that sliver of possibility that our perceptions of reality could be entirely incorrect.

Now, why am I pausing to smell the roses before anything has even begun? Not even I can really answer that question. Why have I stopped to wonder about the world around me? As you have probably taken notice of, this has begun to sound much like a lesson upon philosophy. Philosophy, however, goes hand in hand with science. Thus these things are not for the weak minded. Yet, maybe no one is really particularly _weak minded_ but instead feel so safe in what they perceive to be true that they automatically reject questions that threaten this reality. In this sense, they are scared. Scared of knowledge and progression.

Progression, Knowledge and Curiosity are the three objects that have presented humans with modern society. So then, might I ask why we fear questions? Is it because the sky being blue could be entirely wrong? Now, that could leave a person feeling rather naked. Society has been taught that the sky being blue is true, and not to be questioned. It simply is what it is, yes? Even so, I wonder how you can feel so sure that this is true. Isn't that kind of naive? The sky isn't even technically "blue" everywhere. It is azul, azure, cerulean, gray, orange, purple, pink, etc. The sun controls the color of our skies, and yet we always, in thinking of the sky, think blue.

Why is that? Humans seem to be very easy to program a certain way. They can be taught that bad things are right, much like Nazis. They did believe wholeheartedly that what they were doing was right, and that, how can that be wrong? They were doing as they believed was just, as did those who opposed them. Was either side really in the wrong for doing what they believed was right, what was their _duty_ to their _country_? It seemed that whoever was stronger was allowed to implement their beliefs of what was moral or not upon others. Therefore, could what anyone did - as long as they believed it to be the right thing to do - be truly considered wrong?

All I'm doing is thinking though. Human nature is very interesting to me. It wasn't like I supported, even a little, what the Nazis stood for. I was merely speculating, as distasteful as the political party in question was. So why is the grass green and the sky blue? Couldn't it have been any other color? The answer is "yes". Because for all I knew the sky was not blue, but instead colorless.

And so, with a deep breath, I stand, lifting away from the park bench. The world I saw was obviously very different from how most would perceive it. I wonder if that would make it incorrect to think in such a way... The girl who'd asked to meet me was obviously not coming, and I didn't care enough to wait more than ten minutes after the set time. So I left. There wasn't much point in unnecessarily burdening me for no reason at all. I don't think I will be waiting on anyone else anytime soon. I'd prefer studying and playing basketball to having a girlfriend anyway. All those did was take away time from your day.

I curled my fingers tightly around the silver ring that was my lucky item that day. My luck for the day was pretty terrible for the day, Cancer was ranked tenth. I closed my eyes and sighed. The only other problem with the day was that Takao was absent. He was never absent, since he was usually the perfect picture of health, at least as far as I could tell. I glared slightly at the bus station as I walked past it. It wasn't like I was really worried about him or anything anyway. He was usually just bothersome. It was kinda nice without him there to annoy me...

Instead of thinking on it any longer, I derailed the thought process, thinking of Greek society instead. I thought it might be befitting of my earlier thought. Philosophy originated there anyway. For some reason, I suddenly remembered a small, yet interesting thing about the Greeks. Two men could have a intimate relationship as long as it was broken off when the youngest came of age to marry. Then I thought of Takao again, which struck me as a bit odd. I wasn't really interested in the boy or anything. I knew this for a fact because I wasn't really interested in dating at all. I didn't feel any attraction toward anyone.

So Takao's absence continued to bother me. What was he even up to? Could be sick, and if so, was he receiving proper care? Thus, I came to the conclusion that I had to go check. I'd never been to Takao's house, so I had to ask a teacher for the address, which wasn't hard since it was immediately assumed that I would be bringing the day's lessons to him. I was, but that was beside the point. It seemed that he lived in an apartment complex. It was he who opened the door to the apartment, which I found to be very empty. That was when I realized Takao lived alone in an apartment. He didn't seem like the type to live like that.

"Are you sick?" I asked without even showing my surprise as he allowed me into the apartment. I did, however, give away my agitation when I fidgeted and played with my lucky item. Takao didn't seem to pay attention to that. He was flushed and a bit unsteady on his feet.

"No, I just needed to rest a bit," Takao replied, shaking his head. He placed a hand on the wall to keep himself upright. So he had decided to lie to me. I didn't do anything to deny what he'd said, but I was annoyed.

"Then you could've rested tomorrow, since it is a weekend," I retorted, glaring at him. Takao jumped back and ended up stumbling a bit before attempting to fall. Of course, I was able to grab him before he dared to even do such a thing. That was when I realized just how overly warm he was.

"And you _are_ sick," I hissed through my teeth while I dragged him to his room. Takao protested half-heartedly for the first couple seconds, which only served to agitate me further.

Once I had him safe under several blankets and in bed, I took his temperature which was none too pleasing. So I decided I had to watch him until his fever broke, otherwise he might do something stupid. So then I called my parents and told them I'd be at a friend's house, and they trusted me without a second thought, though I thought I heard my mother say something about "her little boy growing up". I decided not to even think about it. My mother was probably being irrational again.

Therefore, I was pulling an all nighter for an idiot. He seemed to come to once during the night, but he still had such a high fever that his mumblings were deemed insignificant, at least until he said something along the lines of "Shin-chan... _tasukete_." That really caught me off guard. Why was he calling out to me of all people? Surely I was the one that would care the least. Even so, I shook him lightly.

"You're safe, Takao. I'm right here," I told him awkwardly, a slight heat warmed my cheeks. I was wearing a mask, so surely I hadn't caught Takao's illness. Maybe Takao was afraid... but of what? He wasn't going to die. I was reassured of this when his fever broke around four o'clock in the morning. Dawn hadn't even broken the sky though, so maybe it was still nighttime. I sighed, closing my eyes. Staying up for such a senseless reason, but his fever was gone, so maybe it wasn't unnecessary but it seemed so idiotic. It wasn't like Takao even asked for help. I should've just left him to die like he wanted me to. Now I was exhausted, and maybe even sick myself. _How stupid._

At about nine, Takao woke up, thus in turn rousing me from my slumber. He was noisy and clumsy it seemed. About half of his kitchen was on the floor, along with him. All I could do was stare at him. What in the world was he even doing? He'd barely recovered from his fever. Obviously, this was a perfect example of that statement, his current position.

"Sorry..." Takao mumbled, beginning to stand and pick up the miscellaneous pots and pans. I watched him quietly, not even thinking to help. It was his mess after all.

"You should be resting," I pointed out. Takao stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at me. Apparently he was surprised that I'd said anything at all.

"My fever's gone, so I should be okay," Takao replied stupidly. I sighed. How did I even withstand this idiot day-in and day-out? I glared at him once again as a stupid, dog-like smile spread across his face.

"Are you a doctor?" I asked him. It wasn't a question in actuality, and I was sure that he understood at least that much. Takao suddenly gained a bounce to his step as he moved toward me.

"Shin-chan! You're worried!" he cheered, wrapping his arms around my neck and pressing one of his cheeks to mine. I stiffened in an immediate response, and it only took a moment more for me to toss him away roughly. Takao narrowly missed hitting the corner of a wall. He was frowning for only a moment.

"You're so mean, Shin-channn~" he pouted, dog-like again. I decided to ignore his antics and opened up the fridge to see what kinds of food he had. I noticed a large variety of fresh vegetables, which surprised me a bit, since they could be expensive and Takao appeared to live alone. I looked over at him curiously, and he laughed.

"My parents send them to me periodically," he informed me. Takao seemed very simple. The more I learned about him, the more picture perfect he seemed to be as a person. Not much hardship, happy-go-lucky... It seemed nice from my perspective, although the grass always seems greener on the other side. Takao could very well think the same of me.

I settled for a simple dish with green onions. I assumed that it would be good for Takao since he was sick. In fact, he seemed rather excited when I placed the bowl in front of him. I wasn't very keen on cooking though, I had to re wrap my fingers afterwards. Takao wanted to help, but I refused to let him. It was best that our friendship remained distant, despite his wish to be close to me. My parents wanted me to go to medical school, so there wouldn't be much time for people in my life for much longer. My mother already hated that I was involved with sports, but as long as I got perfect marks, she didn't breathe a word of it.

I felt the desire to distance myself from Takao because of the dangerous, swirling emotions that grew in me when he called out to me. He needed to go find someone else to be his friend. I was going to ditch him in the end.

"Shin-chan. _Shin-chan._ Shin-chan!" Takao pulled me out of my bubble of thought. I looked up at him, his cheeks still pink from the fever or maybe he was just regaining color.

"Takao?" I replied. He smiled brightly.

"I love you, Shin-chan," he said, smiling away as he usually did. I stared at him blankly for a long time, even though a knot had formed in my stomach. His smile began to fade as time grew on and I was still silent. I was only trying to piece together my thoughts. How are you even supposed to respond to such a confession?

"I hope not," I answered without much thought. Takao's face paled several shades, and I realized that my words had hurt him. My wall of protection only moved, it never thought. Even if I were to hurt others, I had to keep myself from ever hurting. Takao pulled up a broken smile that pierced through me. I was hurt by him getting hurt, even if I was the one at fault. I was not prepared to feel the same about Takao. I had always believed that I cared very little. He was a mere friend, or annoyance, that I could ditch him easily.

"I'm sorry..." he apologized for the second time that day. I took in a deep breath, and didn't look Takao in the eyes.

"I hope not because I won't let go of you once you're mine," I felt my cheeks heat up again. Rather suddenly, arms were around me.

"Shin-chan!" Takao cried, pressing his face into my hair. I pushed him off immediately.

"You're still sick! Idiot!"

**This is probably my favorite pairing in KnB, due to how wonderfully cute it is. I feel like everything sort of progressed naturally. I wrote it to instrumentals, so it sort of has this oddly dark feeling to it. Oh well though, I think I nailed Midorima's personality, so f**k it. **

**There are gaps in there, but they aren't all that significant. Don't worry about them. If you didn't notice them, awesome opossum. **

**Please Review with your thoughts!**

**~Minatu-chan**

**...it's a bit short, isn't it?**


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